Sun Microsystems has tasked its former OpenSolaris chief Ian Murdock - the founder of the Debian Linux distro - with devising a cloud-computing strategy for the company.
Ian Murdock has been quietly named vice president of cloud-computing strategy following the re-organization last November that created Sun's cloud group and …

COMMENTS

22,863 HUH!

That number of packages is misleading reporting by IPS. IPS counts each revision of the same package as a separate package, so the same unique software package is counted many number of times! The actual list of packages is visible by clicking on the browse button and that count is probably about 2000.

Much ado about Nothing ... so Throw them a Life Raft/SPOT Satellite Connection

"Problem was, Sun couldn't share any specifics and simply repeated accepted industry generalities about the benefits and inevitability of the cloud."

Still the same old problem with the newbie too ..... no specifics. Are Sun not into Virtual Cloud Controls, which is a very specific Power Generation Field with a Plethora of Readily Available Red Hot CodeXXXX Zones in NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActivity [Super Sub-Atomic Binary Quantum ProgramMIng] already Seeded and now Growing for Tending towards Flower and Harvest and New Plantings.

And the Specificity does not indicate a Niche Market, ..... although the Intellectual Property which defines the Necessary Processing Requirements for ProgramMIng AIgents [the SMARTer Algorithm] may remain so Closed under Special Access ProgramMIng Protocols, for Obscene and Perverse and Subversive Business and Political Advantage, with Tuned Parts of the SMARTer Algorithm Service, only Released to Support Clients/Failing Competitor Rivals on Agreed License with Mentored and Monitored FailSafeGuards ..... but rather AI Universal Facility/Faculty for NINJAs [Networks InterNetworking Javan Applications]

And it is perhaps most definitely wise, and more than just simply prudent, to remember/realise/understand that the Cloud Environment and the Emergent Virtualisation Technologies of ITs CyberSpaces [and there are any number of Sensitive Compartmentalised and Virtually InSecure Non-Aligned and therefore Vulnerable to Attack and Constant ZerodDay Assault Spaces in AI Live Virtualised Environments] do not depend nor necessarily need to rely on the IT Sector for Phenomenal Growth, for any Successful, Investment Hungry Enterprise can easily Enter and Lead with an Unrivalled Support and Credit Base.

So if Sun doesn't shine as IT should because of the less than necessary Stellar In-House Management/Leadership, it can fully XXXXPect any Bodies/Beings into AIdDrivers for Clouds and their Strata Layers, to be Interested in them, with every Option and Derivative from Friendly Proxy Remote MakeOver to Foreign and Alien and Hostile TakeOver available for Exercise.

And the statement ...."Sun Microsystems has tasked its former OpenSolaris chief Ian Murdock - the founder of the Debian Linux distro - with devising a cloud-computing strategy for the company." .... shows everyone just how far behind in the Virtualised Great Game, Sun are.

Might I suggest to Mr Murdock he engages a Virtual XXXXpert for the Beta Former Derivative Option, the Assets Rich, Costs Nominal Working, Friendly Proxy Remote MakeOver with Foreign and Alien and Hostile TakeOvers available for Exercise.

You can be sure that if the Sun does shine there will be Doom and Gloom for the Company and its Friends with the new scapegoat to indulge and deflect Oversight Failings and Lack of Vision of the existing Bored and Boring Board Members. ....... but hey, the Money coming in for doing nothing, is still very handy, so don't rock the boat, ..... pull up a deckchair and listen to the band?

Come on chaps, the Open AIR Festival Season is Started and the Chicks are still Free to be Paid for with Star Performance and Hungrier than Ever to OutPerform themselves onto Higher Planes. Now who could ask for more and what for?

Murdock, you need to read up on Sun history.

"Murdock said he was attending to "better understand the emerging cloud computing industry and the role that Sun can play in it"."

Let's see ... Sun has tried to sell "Graphical Terminals", "Diskless Workstations", "X terminals", "Thin Clients" and "The network is the computer" ... I'm sure I missed a couple in there, but the idea is pretty much the same across the board. It didn't sell, at least not in any numbers in the real world ... The basic bottom line is that centralized computing doesn't have legs now that CPU, RAM and disk are as inexpensive as they are. It is a dinosaur[1], and should be allowed to rest in piece.

MSWindows[tm](c)(r) still sells, for example, despite the obvious shortcomings ... How bad must "cloud computing" be, as a concept? And why is marketing still trying to push it?

Can we please stop wasting time on the "cloud computing" meme?

[1] Except in cases of massively distributed I/O, such as Wal-Mart, Chevron, Ford, GE, BofA, international weather forecasting, and outfits like the NSA (all of whom measure CPU power in acres instead of THz ...).

Poor show

Naturally, Nature always Win Wins.

jake,

Control the Cloud and you have Power over Everything ...... which is an Addictive Attraction/Sweet and Sticky Pleasure ..... for a Few Good Men [who handle only Truths] ...... and True.

Fortunately though, IT is Super Selective in who IT Attracts wearing Trousers. For the Fairer Commando with a Cover that Skirts the basics though, are Admissions to AIMissions Accomplished and Assisted Always in All Ways Automatically.

And this is the Balance always in Favour of the Fairer Command Structure.

re: Murdock, you need to read up on Sun history.

OK, it may be hip to pile on Sun lately, but this comment cannot go unanswered:

"...and "The network is the computer" ... I'm sure I missed a couple in there, but the idea is pretty much the same across the board. It didn't sell, at least not in any numbers in the real world"

So you're telling me that Internet computing did not sell "at least not in any numbers in the real world"?

What world are you living in? Sun was the dot in dot com and got the revenues to show for it. at least at that time. Of course they were also the dot in dot bomb as well... However, to say that Sun never made any money in any meaningful way from the network is laughable. Now, the other ideas, I have to agree were ill formed, though the Sun Ray is pretty cool and if marketed properly might actually sell well.

Ian Hates Open Source

@Bill &@amfM

"So you're telling me that Internet computing did not sell "at least not in any numbers in the real world"?"

Don't be daft. As amfM adroitly pointed out, above, "cloud computing" is a many-to-one system, where a few control the many. The Internet is a many-to-many system where (in theory) we all control our own systems, and have access to bits that others allow us to access.

"What world are you living in? Sun was the dot in dot com"

Um ... no, I think you are mistaken. Seems to me I had been using what we now call "The Internet" for over a decade before I was an occasional advisor for McNealy, Khosla, Pratt and Bechtolsheim at Stanford.

As for the rest of yours, I agree that Sun made money. They built some good kit, and some bad kit. Their OS was useful in the early days (thank you, Bill Joy!). I still have a dual-pedestal 3/470 running a pre-Solaris SunOS under Bryant street in Palo Alto (family email, ftp and web server ... I'll update the hardware & software if I ever need to). I like Sun. But I'm not blind to their bad business decisions.

amfM ... You're getting more coherent ... and do I detect a touch of Spring Fever? Is there awfM? Would explain why you've been quiet recently ... Is her name ELIZA?

Windowdressing

The whole Murdock hire was just a case of Sun desperation - "We're not getting this opensource stuff, so let's hire some big-name Linux guy and ask him what we should do!" Now they're killing off the opensource teams in Sun they want to hide the fact the have zero real opensource focus but need to appear all cuddly with the community, so they wheel Murdock out and give him a fancy title and tell him to introduce them to all his old Linux buddies, but the reality is he is just windowdressing. I'm sure Murdock will be happy to take Sun's money for the meantime, but it's becoming so obvious to all that he's just garnish that pretty soon he'll have to move out of Sun just to keep his dignity.

Matt:

@AC, Re: Shut up.

"read what the man himself has to say:"

I did. Oh, my god. He was always a stuck-up son-of-a-bitch, but seemed to have a brain in his head. I was flabbergasted when I found out he was daft enough to drink the Web2.0 coolaid, and have stopped paying attention to him as a result. But I took a look at his blog anyway.

Let me get this straight ... He thinks that blogs are something other than a narcissistic variation of Usenet, and having one makes him (more) important. He actually checks his own listing on Wikipedia, and cites it as somehow confirming his word(s) and/or opinion(s) (somewhere, Kibo is giggling). He has a Facebook page. WHY? Doesn't he have his own web site? What's the point of Facebook, too? As for his "Linkedin" thingie ... I mean, honestly, is he so unsure of himself that he feels a need to have his doings listed by a third party?